16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done ​in God.” John 3:16-21

…6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.… ​1 John 1:6-8

The book of Romans is called the greatest theological document ever written. Paul is the author . It was written with much passion and excitement about the saving power of Jesus Christ.Chapters 1-4 can be considered to be the Core of or the Heart of the Gospel. It suggests that Paul is trying to touch on every area of life while plugging in the power of the Gospel at the same time.

Gospel – the literally means “it’s too good to be true” in the Greek!

We are created by God to worship Him and to fulfil His purpose. Both of those areas are under attack every day. We were physically designed to reproduce and spiritually designed to fulfill His King dome purpose. Satan is attacking our sexuality and he is trying to cause people to forsake their purpose by tempting people to serve only themselves.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made likecorruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served thecreature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. 27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned intheir lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, 30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them. ​Romans 1:18-32

There are 3 areas where sin is evident:

Knowledge Suppressed (1:18-20)

Knowledge Rejected (1:21-23)

Knowledge Perverted (1:24 – 32)

Knowledge Suppressed – when you clearly know there is a God, but suppresses the desire to seek Him to find the truth about who He is and the truth about right living. Instead of the pursuit of God, it becomes a pursuit of self, which leads to a life of sin.

Knowledge suppressed is also when you have knowledge of right and wrong according to God, but suppress that knowledge in order to fulfill selfish desire.

Knowledge Rejected – when the Gospel has been presented and the person decides to not give it place in their life. To reject the Truth is to accept a lie. When the Gospel is rejected, wickedness sets in.

Knowledge Perverted – perversion of the Gospel is to take the Gospel and twist it to endorse a lifestyle of rebellion against God. For a person to pervert the Gospel, a person must be in a position of siding against God and the Gospel. A dangerous place to be – against God.

​“To me, Satan ultimately represents rebellion.” –Marilyn Manson

Deeper Understanding

In order to have a full grasp on the Gospel, “the good news”, the message of Grace, you must understand the anger and judgment of God. God is a righteous judge and the Bible says that “God is angry with the wicked every day.” (Psalm 7:11)

 What does it mean to be wicked?

The word “wicked” or “wickedness” in the Hebrew is “Ra”.

“Ra” means: to break; to break from its original purpose.

So to be wicked is to be someone who breaks from their original purpose or take something and break it from its original purpose.

 What is our original purpose?

In Genesis 2, you can see that we were created for God’s pleasure. Meaning, you and I were formed with the purpose to be a blessing and a joy to God.

The devil, the enemy of our souls is jealous of the fact that we were made to do that. The enemy’s greatest form of rebellion against God now, is to take what was made for the purpose of pleasing Godand “break it” (Ra), make it wicked.

When someone is wicked, they have been broken from their purpose and now live in a rebellion against

God where instead of pleasing God, now they want to please themselves.

Everyone has the gift of Choice

​“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.” –Mark Twain

According to Romans 1, every person has the choice to either worship God or worship someone or something else.

When someone chooses to reject God and His saving grace, what is left? What choice has a person made when they have chosen the rather?

If you reject Grace, you are only left with the wrath of God. Jesus came to save us from God’s wrath; God’s wrath is what we deserve as a result of sin. Without the salvation of Jesus only wrath is left.

To choose to be against God is to choose to be abandoned to what you desire no matter how shameful or perverted it is. You are given over to a “reprobate mind”.

Reprobate mind - a depraved, unprincipled, or wicked person. a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation.

If God is not the basis of Truth in your life, then what truth are you left with? When a person has chosen this route for their life, then they have given them self the difficult task of defining their own truth as they go along still figuring it out.

Question: how do you define what you are still figuring out? You can’t put definition to what still needs to be defined.

- The word “abandoned” in this verse means “a handing over”. Meaning, God is handing a person over to fulfill their own desires and receive the consequences thereof.

If you decide to leave God and reject His Truth, then you are only left with the option of being without Him.

“You are either with God or without God, there is no other alternative.”

The result of rebellion against God and His truth is an exhaustive list of sins that are named in Romans 1. There are many that go without saying, but there is one in particular that Paul decides to expand on a bit.

Why does he expand on this?

Because sex has to do with reproducing and pleasure.

Think about it! We are created to please God and we are created to reproduce. The two major purposes we have are the two that are most attacked demonically.

Homosexuality (Gay and Lesbian) relationships. The definition of homosexuality is this, “to turn against or abandon natural relations of sex.”

Living a homosexual lifestyle will grant you the same judgment as living in fornication, adultery, sexual perversion, and any other sexually sinful lifestyle.

We live in a dark and depraved world where the Bible and God Himself has been rejected. It is only a matter of time before our Nation becomes so bad that even what is preached will regulated with great consequences. Because our world is sinful, children also become products of their environment. We are all products of our environment. Media has become the greatest influencer and teacher.

If you grow up in a racist environment with a racist family, you will grow up racist. If you grow up in a drug infested environment and have a drug infected family, you will grow up doing the same thing. Ifyou are brought up that sexual perversion and sexual sin is just fine, then you will not think any of that is wrong.

The desire for sin is there in all of us. We are all attracted to different areas of sin, but the desire and attraction toward sin is not a confirmation that it is morally or righteous to be allowed to entertain in that lifestyle.

Question: If you can judge a sinner for their passion for their lifestyle, can a sinner judge you for your passion for God?

Matthew 7 says to “judge not that we be not judged.”

​What would someone be able to say to you if they were allowed to sit in the judgment seat in regards to your life?

It is a shame when wicked people in our world can show more Unity, Passion, and Backbone than the church of Jesus Christ! We spend too much time judging the world instead of judging ourselves andkeeping ourselves right before God. If we focused more on examining our self more than judging the world, I bet we would see more people wanting to come to church.